, 1887-09-22
LIFE OF A
A Terrible Operation-A Worried and
ENhnusted Doctor-A Crisis.

impossible for any man to be a great sur
geon If he is destitute. even in a con-
siderable degree, of the finer feelings of
our nature. / have often lain awake for
hours the night before an important
operation, and suffered great mental dis
tress for days after it was over, until /
was certain that my patient was out of
danger. 1 do not think that 1t is possible
for a criminal to feel much worse the
night before his execution than "a sur
geon, when he knows that upon his skill
and attention must depend the fate of a
valuable citizen, husband, father, mother
or child. Surgery under such circum-
stances is a terrible taskmaster, feeding
like a vulture upon a mans vitals. 1t is
surprising that any surgeon in large
practice should ever attain to a respect
able old age, SO great are the wear and
tear of mind and body.
The world has seen many a sad picture.
l will draw n of the surgeon. 1t is
midday; the sun is bright and beautiful:
all nature is redolent of joy; men and
women crowd the street, arrayed in their
best, and all apparently is peace and hap
pin 81 within and without. In a large
house almost o~verhanging this street so
full of life and gayety lies upon a couch
an emaciated figure, once one of the
sweetest and ~loveliest of her sex, a CON
fiding and affectionate wife and the
adored mother of numerous children, the
subject of a frightful disease of one of
her limbs, or, it may be, of her jaw, if
not a still more important part of her
body. In an adjoining room is the sur
geon, with his assistants, spreading out
his instruments and getting things in
readiness for the impending operation.
He assigns to each his appropriate place.
One administers chloroform; another
takes charge Of the limb; one screws
down the tourniquet upon the principal
artery, and another holds himself in
readiness to follow the knife with his
sponge. The flaps are soon formed, the
bone severed, the vessels tied and the
huge wound approximated. The woman
is pale and CHASTITY, the pulse hardly per-
ceptible, the skin wet with clammy per-
SEPARATION, the voice husky, the sight in
distinct. Some one whispers in the ear
of the busy surgeon: 1.-THE patient, 1
fear, is dying" Restoratives are admin
istered, the pulse gradually rises, and
after a few hours of hard work and ter
rible anxiety reaction occurs. The poor
woman was only faint from the joint in
fluence of the anasthetio, shock and loss
of blood. An assistant, a kind of SEN
tinel, is placed as Il guard over her, with
instructions TO watch her with the closest
care and to send word the M the
slightest change for the WORSE is per-
ceived.
The surgeon goes about his business,
visits other patients on the way, and ut
length, long after the usual hour, he sits
down, worried and exhausted, to his cold
and comfortless meal, with a mouth al
most as dry and a voice as husky as his
patients. He eats mechanically, ex-
changes hardly a word with any member
of his family. and ~sullenly retires to his
study. to prescribe for his patients-never,
during all this time, forgetting the poor
mutilated object he left Il few hours ago.
He is about to lie down to get a moments
repose after the severe toll of the day,
when suddenly he hears a loud ring of the
bell, and a servant, breathless with ex-
element, begs his immediate presence at
the sick chamber with the exclamation,
"They think Mrs. - is dying" He
hurries to the scene with rapid pace and
anxious feeling. The stump is of a Grim
son color, and the patient lies in a pro-
found swoon. An artery has suddenly
given way; the exhaustion is extreme;
cordials and stimulants are at once
brought into requisition; the dressings are
removed, and the recusant vessel is
promptly secured.
The vital current GIBBS and flows, re-
action is still more tardy than before,
and it is not until a late hour of the night
that the surgeon, literally worn out in
mind and body, retires to his home in
search Of repose. Does he sleep? He
tries, but he cannot close his eyes. His
mind is with his patient; he hears every
footstep upon the pavement under his
window, and is in momentary expecta-
ton of the ringing of the night bell. He
is disturbed by the widest ~fancies, he
sees the most terrific objects, and as he
rises early in the morning to hasten to his
patients chamber, he feels hat he has
been cheated of the rest Of which he stood
SO much in need. Is this picture over
drawn2 l nave sat for it a thousand
times, and there is not an educated, con-
scientious surgeon that will not certify to
its accuracy.-From the Autobiography
of DR.. Gross.